England. A weird discrepancy described those years: British football was stubbornly out of touch with modern development of the game, yet, it was most dominant on club level in Europe. But the national team was rapidly losing ground and even respect. Hooliganism plagued the game, spilling out the island and infecting the continent. This year was tragic for English football, because after the European Champions Cup final English teams were banned from the European club tournaments – many cried that was unfair, but others cheered the ban. The effects were debatable, but it could be said that English football lost its competitive edge, retreating into its comfortable and blind believe of practicing the best football in the world. After the few years of rapid import of foreign players, the practice stalled somewhat, to the delight of traditionalists, firmly believing that only the British can play the game rightly. This added to the European ban perhaps put English football further behind the times, but it was still the most entertaining championship. In this circumstances emerged a new exciting team, which looked like a worthy challenger of Liverpool for the foreseeable future – the positive sign was cut off by the ban or, at least, the club believes so to this very day. As the championship went… perhaps it left mixed feelings: new champion was healthy change, but there was no exciting race for the title. Financial problems were persistent and seemingly there was no solution – by now, the strength of the teams depended largely on what money they had and the division between rich and poor was only growing. The leaders were the same, they had money, there was not going to be any change. The only innovation – seemingly, working fine – was that in England 3 points were given for a win and 1 for a tie.
Fourth Division. Hardly any club with relatively big name played here this season. With the unfamiliar outside England rule for winning, some teams appear to be cut apart from the rest – either too weak or too strong – but it was hard to judge: Torquay United was last (for a second consecutive year) 6 points behind the the 23rd placed, but in the traditional point system they would have been only 1 point behind. At the top the difference was not so great: Bury finished 7 points ahead of Hereford United – in the old system they would have been 5 points ahead. Anyhow, 4 teams were going up as ever and no direct relegation – if any – as ever.
Northampton Town ended 23rd with 47 points, but had nothing to fear. Hope to get better the next season, that was all.
Halifax Town – 21st with 50 points.
Hartlepool United – 19th with 52 points.
Wrexham – 15th with 54 points.
Mansfield Town – 14th with 57 points.
Port Vale – 12th with 60 points.
Peterborough United – 11th with 62 points.
Scunthorpe United – 9th with 71 points.
Hereford United was at the top of the bulk – 5th with 77 points – but no matter which point system, they were not really good enough for promotional race. The 4 teams above were pretty much on their own.
Bury were happy 4th with 84 points – promoted, so enjoying the bubbly. Feeling like champions, but they can be excused – leaving 4th Division was happy occasion. They did not play 3rd Division since 1979-80.
Darlington – 3rd with 85 points and also promoted. Perhaps even happier than Bury, for they were relegated from 3rd Division in 1966-67 and spent many unhappy years mostly near the bottom of the lowest professional league.
Blackpool was 2nd with 86 points. Arguably, the club with the worthiest history in the league, so it was not that much happy occasion of climbing up, but more of an end of irritation. They sunk that low in 1980-81.
Chesterfield were the strongest team this season and confidently won the championship with 91 points from 26 wins, 13 ties, and 7 losses. 64-35 was not the best scoring record, but who cares – they were eager to return to 3rd Division, which they left in 1982-83. Did not take them long to climb back and in perfect style too – champion of 4th Division may sound as a joke to many a club, but not so to a modest club like Chesterfield.